Lawrence Hung - Jul 2, 2008 3:28 am (#23253 Total: 23272)
Now playing Italia,Mare Nostrum,Heroes of the Soviet Union,
Le Grande Empire,Command & Colors:Acnients,Band of Heroes,
ASLSK1,Old Contemptibles,4 Lost Battles,Twilight Struggle,
Hannibal:Rome v Carthage,ATS1a Screaming Eagle,
Triumph of Chaos,Pax Romana
Pacific Typhoon
Pacific Typhoon is the new game using Atlantic Storm card game system.
Interesting for its innovation and fast-pace game. The rules are
actually easy to digest not as complex as it seems initially by the
summary of play in the first few pages, though there are quite a few
typos and ambiguities in some places (e.g. binocular shape for ship vs.
"wide rectangle" shape for ship in the rulebook). The game is basically
a card game but it is meaty enough to require players to develop and
follow through a strategy. There are 40 battle (location) cards and 110
force cards (read air, surface and submarine weaponry, including some
bonus and event cards). The round leader chooses the battle card among 2
at a time. Each battle card has a VP score, awarded to those who win the
battle (see below on spoils). Each player is dealt 6 cards each round to
hand and the round leader lead by calling the "suit" of battle. The
"suit" represents the time, day and weaponry chosen for the battle. The
time in year represents the battle historically fought and that those
force cards with the "years" available (at the same or after the
historical year) can participate in the battle. Some battles are fought
at daytime and some at night, while some can be either ("twilight").
Each force cards itself indicate the day of battle that the force can
join in (i.e. a day-only force could not join in a night battle), the
combat values at each level (i.e. different at air-surface-subsurface or
combined operations). A player can only commit to either the Japanese or
the Allied side by playing those nations' cards in turn. At the end of
each round, the side with the highest combat values in total win the
battle.
For the winning side, the player who contributed the highest combat
values has the right to "divide" the battle "spoils" - the battle card
itself plus the losing side's committed battle forces. Some forces have
0 VP while some can have 8. So naturally, the winning player would
allocate the highest VP spoil card to himself first, and then the
remaining spoil cards evenly among other players of the winning side. At
the end of the game (after 20 battles are fought and completed), the
player who has the highest VPs spoil cards is declared the winner. If
there is a tied, the more battle cards won is the winner. If still tied,
the one who has the earliest battle card is the winner (so you are
encouraged to win the earlier battles even though they are generally
with less VPs).
The twists for this game lie in the use of the bonus and events cards at
the right time, e.g. there is a big spoil card on the table, boosting
your forces' combat values and thus your chance of winning the battle.
The bonus cards should be attached to your force with the corresponding
"parent" card type. Thus, a surface bonus card could not be applied to
an air force card etc. Some are added with a +1 bonus if used in the
right time of the day (i.e. day or night). While some others have a
variable bonus amount by rolling a dice.
For those who are the old-AH type mathematicians, the call for the
correct type of attack with the already known forces discarded in
previous battles may increase the chance that the other players or a
particular side lacking the appropriate cards to follow "suit". But I
suspect if there are many such "grognards" in casual plays.
Another twist is to follow round leader's suit by placing your "bet" to
the side you think it is going to win the battle, in the hope of sharing
some spoils after the battle. Of course, you share the spoils only when
you have at least 1 combat value contributed to the winning side (a "0"
combat value earns you nothing). Obviously you want to be sure about the
"trend" of each side winning a particular battle when people before you
committed their sides and forces to the table respectively. If you bet
the wrong side, your forces committed become the "spoils" to others...No
kidding when you lost a battle with substantial forces committed by you.
That's where the diplomacy and interactions among the players come in.
There might not be enough "spoils" cards for the winning player to
divide. So people have to talk to each other for securing a "share" if a
certain combat value is required to win the battle. Spoils force cards
are always kept hidden from the other players. For battle cards, they
should always be shown openly as they have "resources" to boost a
player's hand with an additional card, for an increased hand size up to
9.
This is a competitive "game" and I emphasis it is a "game". It is
because the battle locations appear randomly so you would feel that you
are flying over time to battle (there is a chronological version for the
"realist" though). There is also a team-play version for committing
players to either side prior to the game. Overall, these add up more
value to the game when you get tired of the original. I am pleased to
have such a nice and short game (several games in an afternoon session
are possible) with some historical chrome.